Associate ProfessorSandra Alday

Sandra began her research career by exploring the relationship between firm internationalisation and performance. She aimed to examine why there was significant divergence in the findings on the nature of the relationship, concluding that the existing approaches to measuring the degree of firm internationalisation in fact captured different dimensions of international business activity. These differences in measurement led to divergence in the findings on the nature of the relationship between internationalisation and performance. Her main contribution in this early work was an alternative approach to measuring firm internationalisation, designed to unbundle the various dimensions of business activity located in different geographic spaces.

She then extended her work on unbundling different dimensions of international activity across different international spaces to explore the resulting international business and economic networks formed by international business activity. Sandra currently investigates the nature and structure of these international networks within integrated regions (e.g. ASEAN, the EU) and geographic regions (e.g. Asia Pacific, Central Asia), and examines the implications on economic risk within these regions. For her work on international trade networks, Sandra has received research grants from the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre (SSEAC) to explore networks in Southeast Asia and in the Asia-Pacific region. She has also received funding from the United Nations (UN)-supported International Think Tank on Landlocked Developing Countries (ITT LLDC) to explore the international trade network participation of landlocked emerging markets in Southeast Asia and in Central Asia.

Sandra has further extended her work on understanding the diversity in international business activity to understanding the nature of organisational diversity within international businesses. She is interested in examining different types of organisational diversity and their impact on organisational performance and resilience to external shocks. For her work on organisational diversity, she has received a 3-year research grant from the Investing in Women (IW) initiative, funded by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), to explore the nature of corporate governance networks and gender diversity in large corporations in Southeast Asian emerging markets.

As a committed educator, Sandra has developed a scholarly approach to teaching, cultivating a body of research focused on approaches to support student integration into the learning process, methods to assess student learning, and approaches to diversifying learning opportunities (including designing work integrated learning experiences) aimed at preparing graduates to meet the human capital requirements of international businesses. For her work in education, she has received a University of Sydney learning and teaching grant, and a Business School Educational Innovation grant.